An early gift as Obamas start vacay

HONOLULU — His holiday vacation is starting a day late, but Christmas came early for President Barack Obama, who left for Hawaii Thursday with one less priority on his legislative wish list.

"Having passed reform bills in both the House and the Senate, we now have to take up the last and most important step and reach an agreement on a final reform bill that I can sign into law,” Obama said after the Senate’s 60-39 vote Christmas Eve morning, which he said means ”we are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country.”

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The Senate vote capped off a grueling year for the president, who will return to Washington in less than two weeks to face the host of challenges that await him in 2010.

But for the next 11 days, Obama will ditch the suit and tie, and soak up the sun, hit the golf course and kick back with his family and closest friends. The first family will be staying at the same 7,000-square foot beachfront rental home they occupied last Christmas and New Year’s before moving to Washington.

It’s Obama’s first trip as president to Hawaii, where he was born and spent most of his childhood, and much has changed since he last visited.

The president, the first lady and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, have settled into life in the White House. There’s an addition to their family, the first dog, Bo. Their security detail is thicker. The president is a little grayer and appears slightly thinner.

Since taking office, Obama has doubled down on the troubled war in Afghanistan. He has signed one of the largest spending proposals in history. He has watched his August deadline for a health care bill pushed further and further back, while support for it waned. Housing foreclosures hit record numbers. Unemployment went above 10 percent. Swine flu became a worldwide crisis.

Meanwhile, Obama‘s approval ratings dropped. He was criticized by the left, heckled in Congress and repeatedly challenged by former Vice President Dick Cheney. A year ago, Obama was expressing optimism about bipartisanship. This week he had to delay his holiday plans because Senate Democrats were trying to overcome a Republican filibuster of his health care proposal before Christmas Day.

“He’s been under a huge amount of pressure,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers, adding that Obama’s Hawaii down time will allow him to “recharge his batteries.”

The Obamas have spent Christmas in Hawaii almost every year since before their daughters were born, explained White House spokesman Nick Shapiro, “so the president could spend time with his family members who live there and continue to see his childhood friends.”

“Close friends from Chicago also join in this annual tradition, and they are all looking forward to celebrating the holidays together,” Shapiro said.

Yet when Air Force One touches down at Hickam Air Force Base Thursday afternoon, Obama will be returning to Hawaii for the first time with no relatives living there. His grandmother died in Honolulu just two days before he was elected, and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, moved to Washington earlier this year.